Four Brewers: Craft Beer and Homebrew - Episode Twenty - Exponential Nagelness

Episode Twenty - Exponential Nagelness

Explicit content warning

10/13/14 • 57 min

Four Brewers: Craft Beer and Homebrew

Season 1, Episode 20 - This week, we’re diving into some blind tasting, drinking some Nagelbier, and reaching exponential levels of hoppiness.

We’re not messing around this week. We’re coming out swinging with some blind tasting, courtesy of Jason’s girlfriend, and our bud, Sara. Matt accidentally caught a peek of the first beer, and it takes us a seemingly odd amount of time to guess said beer. We’re then a bit blown away by one of the selections and learn that preconceived notions about any particular beer are just that, and beers should be just by the actual product in the bottle, or in this case, the 25.4oz can they are packaged in.

Next up is a long overdue homebrew segment. Greg brought us his Belgian strong-something-or-other that he brewed with local homebrewing legend, Brad Daniels. Brad is a local craft beer and homebrewing enthusiast from Anaheim, California, who’s probably best known for is unique and badass home brewery named Peace Brewing. Without getting into much detail, the dude’s brewery has hot water on demand, a hoist for his kettle, a bar, and a freaking urinal all built into his heavenly facility. We hope to feature his place on a future video episode.

Brad invited Greg over to his place for “brewing and brunch”, as it were, and that’s where this beer got its name, Belgian Brunch. Fermented with Safale T58 yeast, brewed with some non-specific hops, and then finally corked and caged (fancy!), this 12 day old homebrew came off a bit hot, and had all of the indicators that led us to believe that it ultimately needed more time in the bottle. Greg told us that Brad agrees, and that six months of cellar time will probably work wonders on this brew.

Next up is something of a treat from the San Diego region of Southern California, Exponential Hoppiness from Alpine Brewing Co.. This beer is a triple IPA, and of course, is delicious. Alpine puts a spin on the style by adding oak chips to the secondary to round out all of the flavors. If you’ve never tried it, seek it out. It’s worth the trek to Alpine for a day of drinking brews and hanging out on their back patio.

Finally, we end the show with some discussion on smaller breweries and if they feel the pressure to constantly innovate, and if it’s necessary due to their small size and consumer demand of their mainstay beers.

Brew the shit out of it!

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Season 1, Episode 20 - This week, we’re diving into some blind tasting, drinking some Nagelbier, and reaching exponential levels of hoppiness.

Brew the shit out of it!

Subscribe to the show:RSS iTunes – While you’re there, give a review of the podcast!Stitcher

Thumb us up on Facebook:facebook.com/fourbrewers

Got a question? Feedback? Email us:feedback at fourbrewers dot com.

Help support Four Brewers!Donate via PayPal

Previous Episode

Episode Nineteen - A Pod of Whalez

Season 1, Episode 19 - This week on the show, we harpooned some whalez from the other side of the continent, Brooklyn Brewery.

Welcome to Four Brewers, the one-day-late edition. As many of you know, the Great American Beer Festival came to a close last Saturday (...it was AWESOME!), which means we were pretty much in recovery mode when we got home, and couldn’t get the show edited and out on time. Better late than never, right? RIGHT.

This week, Matt and his totally awesome rad wife hooked us up with some Brew fromBrooklyn Brewery out of New York. We rarely see Brooklyn Brewery’s beer in this neck of the woods, so it goes without saying that these are quite a treat for us.

Brooklyn Brewery Beers.

We kick off the show with the only beer made with the Sorachi Ace hop that Matt can stomach, Brooklyn’s Sorachi Ace. Sorachi Ace hops tend to have a very perfume-like nose to them, and can really dominate the overall experience of a beer, since they live somewhere in the neighborhood of 18% alpha acid. This beer both combats and compliments this hop with Brooklyn Brewery’s own in-house strain of Belgian ale yeast. It’s one of the best Sorachi Ace beers around, and definitely worth seeking out.

Silver Anniversary Lager is next up, which is essentially a doppelbock strength version of their Brooklyn Lager. We tangent for a bit (surprised?) and discuss gluten-free food stuffs, the Beer Wars documentary, and the history of Brooklyn Brewery’s iconic logo.

Last but not least is the Brooklyn Cuvée Noire, a 10.6% ABV bourbon barrel-aged, Belgian style stout made with sweet orange peel. This bottle happens to be blend #4, and it’s pretty fantastic.

As excited as we were to drink these bottles of radness, we got off topic quite a bit, and honestly, didn’t spend a whole lot of time discussing the beers. Hey, it happens.

If you’re missing the homebrew aspect of the show, next week’s episode will feature a brew from Mr. Nagel. Greg’s no slacker, yo.

Brew the shit out of it!

Subscribe to the show:RSS iTunes – While you’re there, give a review of the podcast!Stitcher

Thumb us up on Facebook:facebook.com/fourbrewers

Got a question? Feedback? Email us:feedback at fourbrewers dot com.

Help support Four Brewers!Donate via PayPal

Next Episode

Episode 21 - Great American Beer Festival

Season 1, Episode 21 - This week on the show, we’re all up in the 2014 Great American Beer Festival.

The Great American Beer Festival is America’s largest beer festival, and is held once a year in Denver, Colorado. Greg and John were up there for the festivities this year, and needless to say, they were not dissapointed. On the show this week, we’ll be drinking three award-winning beers from three southern California breweries who all won medals this year at GABF for the first time.

GABF 2014 Award-winning SoCal Breweries

We start the show with Saint Archer Brewing Co.‘s White Ale. The beer took home a gold at GABF this year, and it’s easy to see why–this beer is delicious. This light, clean, and dry witbier bursts with that signature witbier yeast aroma, and is backed up by a refreshing burst of citrus flavor. Saint Archer is a relatively new brewery out of San Diego, California, and they came running out of the gate with some truly great beers. Seeing them win at GABF was no surprise.

Next up is Rocco Red from Bootlegger’s Brewery out of Fullerton, California. This beer, along with their Galaxian Barleywine, won bronze at GABF this year. This was also Bottlegger’s first time winning some metal at the fest. Rocco is their Amber ale. It has a quite dominant caramel flavor that hits your palate up front, but is balanced with a nice dryness, so it doesn’t come off too sweet or cloying. It has a pleasant pine characteristic to the aroma, and is an overall excellent beer. Cheers to the Boots team for the win!

The final winner from SoCal that we managed to get our hands on is Bottle Logic Brewing‘s Lagerithm, which is an American-style dark lager. It’s pretty rad to see Bottle Logic win gold with this beer style–it’s not an easy beer to brew. Bottle Logic has been pumping out some awesome beers since they opened in February, from their Double Actuator double IPA, to their Tattered Prince French-style saison, and their Hanamachi Japanese-style rice lager. Big cheers go out to the crew at Bottle Logic!

A big shoutout also goes to Beachwood BBQ & Brewing for bringing home a gold for Mocha Machine (sooo good!), a silver for Un Atout, and winning the award for Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year. Beachwood continues to impress and dominate at GABF, and we couldn’t be more proud of them.

One of the more notable things about the fest for the last couple of years is the My GABFapp (iOS/